Peter Mansbridge's casual wear choices could get worse.
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
CBC rebranding
You have to applaud the effort to go for a younger, more contemporary look, but there's something about the relaunch of CBC's news departments that feels like old wine in new bottles. On radio, Peter Armstrong makes a much more relaxed, casual anchor, but the stories are still policy-wonky with a dose of recent death tolls. If the Corps is going to try to skew young, it's got to have a broader and more vibrant news agenda.
The National's facelift is even less successful. All you have to do is click a few times here, a few times there--nobody said it would be easy to find, baby--and you can watch a 10-minute web-only broadcast of the flagship show. That's where anchor Peter Mansbridge, not content to just walk around a studio reading the news, as he now does on TV, takes off his jacket, revealing his paunchy tummy, and stands in a hallway reading the news. You can see the direction they're headed. If they don't skew as young as they'd like this time around, Peter will be reading the news in his pajamas--or worse--perhaps while taking a leak or between rounds of flossing. That'll lure the tweens.
About the new name for Newsworld, CBC News Network--this must have been decided solely on the basis of how it looked on the screen, not how it would roll off the tongue or abbreviate: CB...CNN. Or maybe they are that desperate and cheesy, like a donut shop calling itself Country Time to cash in on the confusion with Country Style/Coffee Time.
I realize the emphasis is on the brand "CBC News" but did they fail to notice that that phrase was contained in the old name?
The National's facelift is even less successful. All you have to do is click a few times here, a few times there--nobody said it would be easy to find, baby--and you can watch a 10-minute web-only broadcast of the flagship show. That's where anchor Peter Mansbridge, not content to just walk around a studio reading the news, as he now does on TV, takes off his jacket, revealing his paunchy tummy, and stands in a hallway reading the news. You can see the direction they're headed. If they don't skew as young as they'd like this time around, Peter will be reading the news in his pajamas--or worse--perhaps while taking a leak or between rounds of flossing. That'll lure the tweens.
About the new name for Newsworld, CBC News Network--this must have been decided solely on the basis of how it looked on the screen, not how it would roll off the tongue or abbreviate: CB...CNN. Or maybe they are that desperate and cheesy, like a donut shop calling itself Country Time to cash in on the confusion with Country Style/Coffee Time.
I realize the emphasis is on the brand "CBC News" but did they fail to notice that that phrase was contained in the old name?
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